Her government has leapt on to a proposal by Christian Democrat MP Fred Nile to raise the age in a private member's bill. The Premier grew up in Ohio where, like most of the US, the legal drinking age is 21.

"When I was 20, we used to drive to Windsor, Ontario, Canada - an hour away - where the legal drinking age was 19," Ms Keneally said.

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The legal drinking age has been set at 18 in NSW since at least 1906.

The Premier's office said the proposal was being seriously considered and the Liquor Amendment Bill would go to cabinet for debate.

Nationally, 70 young people are admitted to hospital every week and four die from alcohol abuse.

"While I do not want to pre-empt cabinet, my personal view is 18 is the right age,'' Ms Keneally said. "Any change to the legal drinking age is a very significant issue for the community. We recognise that there are strong concerns for and against changing the drinking age from 18 to 21. I note that at the age of 18, you can be called upon to defend your country. However, in the United States, most jurisdictions have a drinking age of 21.''

Ms Keneally was 18 in 1987 when Ohio lifted its drinking age.

"This resulted in binge drinking, drove drinking underground and indirectly encouraged drink-driving,'' she said. "In fact, when I was 20, we used to drive to Windsor, Ontario, Canada - an hour away - where the legal drinking age was 19."

NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell addressed the issue in a TV interview this month: ''I think it would be fantastic if we started over again and it was 21 for people to drink alcohol legally … it's very hard for people to go back, particularly when we now have a binge drinking culture.''

Odyssey House chief executive James Pitts said yesterday he would support the drinking age being raised. ''From a health standpoint, it is not a bad idea,'' he said. ''It gives young people an opportunity to not have the adverse consequences [of alcohol consumption].''

Psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg said the latest research showed one in 20 older teenagers were consuming on average 50 standard drinks a month: ''I'm not saying no child should drink until they're 18, but 21 should be the age when they could buy alcohol.''

Other research found under-age drinkers contributed $107 million in federal taxes from downing 175 million standard drinks a year.

Mr Nile presented the bill to Parliament on Thursday, urging members to support it to curb alcohol-fuelled violence and stop Australia's ''greatest social problem''. He said MPs ''with courage'' could ''save our young people from road accidents'' and allow ''the neurological development of young people to be healthy and unimpeded by the harmful impacts of alcohol''. He told Parliament that new research from the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney showed adolescent brains were sensitive to the negative effects of alcohol, and its use should be ''postponed for as long as possible in the late teenage and early adult years''.

Greens MP John Kaye said it would be ''catastrophic'' if the government supported the bill: ''The real solution does not lie with age-related restrictions [but] with looking at the people making massive amounts of money on alcohol and cracking down on the way they advertise and operate.''

Australian Hotels Association NSW chief executive Sally Fielke said raising the age was not the best approach: ''The focus needs to be on changing our drinking culture and that starts with educating these kids about alcohol.''

Australian Medical Association federal president Andrew Pesce wants more research. ''If there's going to be a change, we would look to see evidence as to whether that's likely to give us positive health outcomes,'' he said.

University of Newcastle's Dr Kypros Kypri presented a seminar for the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research last week on the minimum alcohol-buying age and its effect on the incidence of alcohol-related injuries: ''Analysis shows there is a 15 per cent reduction in traffic crash injuries when the purchase age goes up.''

Mental Health Council of Australia chief executive David Crosbie has said the higher the drinking age, the fewer the problems: ''There is little doubt that if the drinking age is increased, there would be [fewer] deaths and hospitalisations among young people.''

John Eyre, managing director of Alcohol Related Brain Injury Australian Services, claims any level of alcohol consumed by people under about 24 is doing a more serious level of damage than someone over that age.

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Rob Moodie, professor of global health at Melbourne University's Nossal Institute, agrees, having said that, while cigarette laws had been tightened and harm reduced, the opposite had occurred with alcohol.

Paul Dillon, from Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia, labelled the cabinet call a stunt: ''It would be incredibly difficult to change the age, and realistically there are a range of other things we could do to make a change - raise prices, reduce access and reduce alcohol advertising.''